“Conservation of Shadows: Shared Physicality Between Worlds” presented by Ji and Wakefield

This article describes a site-specific interactive mixed reality installation artwork involving a network of over a hundred motor-actuated bells, projections upon a 4x6m bed of salt, and a dual motion tracked virtual reality perspective inhabited by artificial life and integrating real-time volume capture. This work responds to very specific history of the host venue as a former centre for disease control and reagent storage, through a central conception of shadows as shared physical images between visible and invisible worlds, carried through with dual emphasis on functional and contextual meaning in all components. Details of this context, as well as the technical realization, are followed by discussion of mixed reality art as a site-specific expression, and directions for future development.

Artificial Nature is a research-creation project co-founded by Haru Ji and Graham Wakefield in 2007. Artificial Nature installations have counted over forty exhibits across nine countries, including festivals such as SIGGRAPH, Microwave Hong Kong, and Digital Art Festival Taipei, conferences such as ISEA, EvoWorkshops, and IEEE VIS, venues including La Gaite Lyrique, ZKM, CAFA Beijing, Seoul City Hall, MOXI and the AlloSphere Santa Barbara, long with selection in the VIDA Art & Artificial Life competition (2015) and the Kaleidoscope Virtual Reality showcase (2017).